WEBVTT

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"Take the first step in faith.

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You don't have to see the whole staircase,
just take the first step.”

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Martin Luther King.

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In February 2009, I lost my job
as a marketing director,

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I was all dynamic, in London,

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when suddenly one day, I lost my job.

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It was a real slap in the face
but I told myself,

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"it's time to live your dream,
I want to inspire millions of people,

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nothing less,

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I want to put videos online for free.

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I don't know how I'm going
to make a living from it

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but this is what I want to do.

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Now is the time to do it
because I've been fired.

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Let's do it!"

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I already had two,
three million views on Youtube,

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so I thought the time was right.

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I also thought it was time
to write a book.

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Why not? 


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I had just lost a job,

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After all, I had been practicing
self-improvement for years,

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I had attended training courses,

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if all that, the meditations, do work,

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it may be time to try them
and to put them into practice.

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So I wrote a book about it
and by the end of 2009,

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I had a book in my hands,
which had been made very quickly,

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but not a cent on my bank account.

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I ended up broke, in London,
a very very expensive city,

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and at the age of 32,
I had to go back to my parents',

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well, to mum's, my parents were divorced.

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That's a real blow to your ego, for sure,
but I didn't have any other choice,

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it was that or finding another
regular marketing job,

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working for someone that didn't suit me
or at least, I wouldn't get along with

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and I thought, no, I want
to live my dream, I don't know how,

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but I would rather go back
more or less to square one,

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live what I must live with my parents
and not do that job again.

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So I stayed but I still didn't know
how to make a living from my passion.

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My book had known a bit of success
but not enough to make a living.

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On January, 11, 2011

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I decided to go on tour across
the United States, Mexico and Canada,

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a 12-month tour of interviews,
during which I would interview authors,

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people that I thought were nice,
authors mainly.

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I wanted to learn from them
so I brought my small camera,

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my very small camera, a little bit ashamed
of coming over with such a small camera,

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they were so famous!

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I showed up there
and I started to interview them,

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to ask the questions I had always wanted
to ask and I broadcast it on Internet.

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But you are probably
wondering how I paid for it.

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Because traveling for twelve months
costs a lot, it can be very expensive.

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I simply put a donation button,
a Paypal button, on the website.

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I had no idea that it would work
when I started my tour.

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It showed no sign.

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So it was a big leap of faith,

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and the day before the tour started,
I was in New Mexico,

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I was ready to do my first interview,
and a donation happened.

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It was the exact amount
for the computer I needed,

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that I just bought to upload
these videos on Youtube.

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I was blown away!

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I was like: "What? Someone just made
a donation so that I can live my dream,

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I didn't even really ask,
I didn't even say what I need,

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and someone make me a donation!"

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It was like everything became
more colorful, more alive,

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and it blew me away.

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Of course these steps transformed my life,

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it changed me, they were difficult steps,

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challenges, leaps into the unknown,
almost quantum leaps,

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and it transformed my life.

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10 years after uploading my first video
on Youtube in March 2006,

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I got my first "like" and my first view,
it was very exciting,

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well, ten years later,
I have put 3,000 videos online,

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got around 2,000 interviews
in several languages,

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in French and English
since I am French-American,

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I am doing it in both languages.

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I have traveled in a lot of countries,

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I am just back from Martinique,
Guadeloupe and Thaïland,

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45 millions of people
have watched my videos,

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so it has produced a snowball effect
thanks to the social media and all that,

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these videos inspire people
to move forward.

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Lately I interviewed Mantak Chia
in Thaïland for example,

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who has written lots of books
about longevity,

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on having a blooming sexuality.

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Then I am going to interview
Professor Henri Joyeux on nutrition,

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or Frédéric Laloue
on Reinventing Organizations,

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so the new economic models for companies.

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In short, I am having a ball!

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I am going from one person to another,
I upload everything on Youtube.

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But to tell you the truth,
I absolutely have no idea,

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I still don't see the whole staircase.

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In other words,
I answer the call every time,

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every time I feel this impulse,
this intuition, this desire,

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when something resounds inside me,

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I say yes, but I don't know
where I am headed.

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What I can tell you is I am having a ball,

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What I can tell you is
I am enjoying myself,

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that I am filled with gratitude
and joy of life, 


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that I am feeling more and more myself,
and since the day I lost my job,

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and found myself broke,
this is when my real life began.

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It makes me laugh
because when I look back,

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I was so afraid of opening
myself to others,

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I would have been so afraid
of talking in public, of making a video,

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I needed to do everything on my own,
I needed to protect myself,

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I was afraid of being manipulated,
of being betrayed,

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I was afraid of being everything
you can imagine,

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I was protecting myself.

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Especially since that time
when I had no money,

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because it was the hardest thing
I had to live,

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being an entrepreneur at the age of 23

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and achieving success,
even a financial one,

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to find myself in this situation has been
the most beautiful gift after all,

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because it has opened myself again
to life, to gratitude,

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to care about myself,
rather than being hard on myself,

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it has helped me
to look beyond differences,

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beyond appearances,
particularly to tell real 'yes' to life,

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to learn to say 'no' when needed,
to follow this intuition,

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to listen to my intelligence,
the intelligence of the heart,

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that comes at the service
of the intelligence which is up there,

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and to learn to let go, to trust life

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and admit that, maybe,
this is not a threatening universe.

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This is the principle of this world 2.0
that I offer versus the 1.0 one,

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that I feel has reached its limits.

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Today we are in a world asking us
to be joyful, to be spontaneous,

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to be grateful for small things,

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to understand we don't need
to suffer to move forward,

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that we all have something unique
inside us, that you have something unique,

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you even have a responsibility,

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a responsibility to life, to yourself,

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and in order to live this responsibility,
we need to be brave,

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we need to be ourselves.

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We need to go draw within ourselves.

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It is far from being an easy path
but, at least, we become ourselves,

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and we really can help change the world.

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I think we got here, to the point
where we have this ability,

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and you know we have this ability to help,

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to contribute, if only we want
to make a positive impact on the world,

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but it's up to us to decide, to say yes,

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to not hesitate to also ask
life to support us,

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and to have visions
that are bigger than us.

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I remember watching a TED talk
by Jacques Attali,

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who said : "What's most important
is to undertake your life"

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I totally agree with that of course,
because I think it's deeply connected,

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life, our company
and our professionnal life

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and to blossom like that.

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So I ask you tonight to look
at what your role in this society is,

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what role you want to play,
and what your commitment is,

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what excites you,

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and what you would like to answer
your grandchildren if, one day,

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you had a conversation with them

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and they asked about the influence
you have had on this world.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)